Verbs

Conjugated Verbs

In English, verbs are conjugated (changed) because of tense, person, or number. 

Tense: Verbs are conjugated whether they are in the present or the past tense. Note: They are not conjugated in the future tense.

Person: Verbs are conjugated based on whether they are in the first-person, second-person, or third-person.

Number: Verbs are conjugated based on whether they are singular or plural. Singular means that there is one of something (a car, a girl, the rabbit). Plural means that there is more than one of something (cars, girls, rabbits) or that the noun is uncountable (people, money, water).

Most verbs follow the regular pattern of conjugation that you can see below with the verb to walk.

to walk

So, in regular verbs, there are only three different verbs: walk (for all persons in the present tense, except the third-person singular), walked (for all past tense), and walks (for the present tense, third-person singular). 

The third-person singular one of the most difficult grammar concepts for learners of English to use. But it comes up very often.

For example:

The man walks to the store.

The store opens at 8am.

Cambodia is in Asia.

Everyone is on Earth.

This includes all singular indefinite pronouns, such as: everyone, everybody, everything, everywhere, no one, and one.

Irregular Verbs

When it comes to person and number, there are only four irregular verbs in English. They are extremely common, so you need to know them. They are: to be, to have, to do, to go and to say. 

The last two (to do and to say) are actually only irregular in terms of pronunciation. They still follow the regular spelling formula of adding -[e]s to a verb in the third-person singular, but the pronunciation of their vowel's change (duhz/sehz). 

Irregular Verbs (continued)

When it comes to tense, there are about 200 irregular verbs that are commonly used. We won't go over those here. You will see them and learn them over time. Just know that when talking about verbs with irregular tense conjugation, there are three forms that are given: 1) The bare infinitive 2) the past simple 3) the past participle.

Below you can see a regular verb (to walk) compared with an irregular verb (to write).

Non-Verbs with Verb Form

These are words that are not actually verbs, but are in the form of a verb. They include any word that has the present participle (working), past participle (worked), or infinitive (to work/work) forms. They can become adjectives, nouns, and sometimes adverbs.

Present Participle: Mostly nouns, sometimes adjectives.

Past Participle: Almost always adjectives, very rarely nouns.

Infinitive: Mix of nouns, adjectives, and adverbs.

Present Participle: As said above, when the present participle is not a verb, it is called a gerund. When it does this, it is almost always acting as a noun.  An example:

I like running. [Noun]

Running is fun. [Noun]

Eating Khmer food is great. [Noun]

But sometimes a gerund acts as an adjective:

Have you seen the dancing bear? [Adjective]

I bought a swimming pool. [Adjective]

I need a working motorbike. [Adjective]

Past Participle: There are, unfortunately, no names for the different uses of past participles. They are almost always adjectives, such as:

I bought a used car. [Adjective]

My arm is broken. [Adjective]

Fried eggs are my favorite. [Adjective]

Very rarely the past participle is used as a noun, such as in:

Today, we honor the dearly departed. [Noun]

But this is very uncommon. Almost always it is an adjective.

Infinitive: Infinitives are the most confusing, because they fall in all three categories: conjugated verbs, non-conjugated verbs, and non-verbs with verb forms.

They also can be nouns, adjectives, or even adverbs. In addition to this, they are sometimes with to and sometimes without to.

Let’s look at each use of infinitives, starting with nouns:

To run seemed like a bad idea. [Noun]

Everyone wanted to go. [Noun]

I have a paper to write. [Adjective]

I want a teacher to help me learn English. [Adjective]

We must study to learn. [Adverb]

He kicked the ball to score a goal. [Adverb]

When to use to and when not to use to

The infinitive only uses to when it is not being used as a verb. In other words, it only uses to when it is acting as a noun, adjective, or adverb. When the infinitive is acting as a noun, adjective, or adverb, it will almost always use to. 

There are rare times where an infinitive that is a noun, adjective, or adverb doesn’t use to. It happens some of the time after specific verbs (dare, help, let, make), and within common fixed expressions (had better, why not, why should). These are very rare cases and I recommend spending your time practicing something else.